Category: Song Writing

Musical Progress

I did some singing in the car this morning. I’m working on part two of The Great Re-Recording Project of 2015. I put down vocals for three songs. The goal with this project is to make it sound slightly better than the demo quality I usually shoot for. Part of that is there is no copy/paste allowed. That means if a song runs through the chorus section more than once, I sing it more than once. I also doubled almost everything. I’m not sure if I’ll keep both takes in the mix or if I’ll comp them together. It could go either way at this point. Strangely, the three songs I worked on today didn’t have any vocal harmonies in the original versions. I added a little into one song but I didn’t double that. I’m stuck with it as is. I also may have changed one line of the lyrics to one song. I did it on the fly, but it was on purpose. I didn’t screw something up and then decide to keep it because I didn’t want to go back and fix it. I’ve done that before, but not today.

The weird thing was how difficult it all was. When I did part one of this dumb project I was pleased how easy it was to crank out vocals for all of the old songs. Almost as if I was a terrible singer and an amateurish song writer and I purposely made the vocal parts easy. I didn’t, but that’s how it felt. Today was just tough. Literally everything was near the top of my range (which could be a lot smaller than it used to be, I’ll admit it) and I had to pretty much scream to get it all out. There were times when I was incapable of keeping my eyes open because I was belting so hard. Worse, there was one time where I seriously thought I yelled hard enough to make myself throw up. I didn’t, but it was a close call for a second or two.

I had six songs ready to go but in 90 minutes or so I only got to three. If this were the usual album in a month thing I probably would have finished them all. Instead I was adding extra takes and not using copy/paste and just in general being a lot pickier with what I kept. Hopefully that will lead to a better end result but realistically… probably not.

When I started this up again in June I had songs lined up in four groups of eight. After all of the album in a month craziness I have added two more from this year’s batch of crap. I was going to make part 2 be 10 songs but instead I shuffled some things around and now parts 2 and 3 are nine songs each. What does that mean?

Absolutely nothing.

Bad

Worked on the Great Re-Recording Project of 2015 today.

I wrote these friggin’ songs, why can’t I play them? What the hell is wrong with me? I mean, clearly if they came outa my head they aren’t hard to play. Why the constant screw ups?

I’m up to four songs ready for vocals though, so that’s not so bad.

A (musical) Personal Challenge

I took last night and tonight off from recording. After 50/90 I needed a breather. Mentally though… let’s just say that doing these stupid musical things is a source of therapy for me. It helps me keep my head straight when the Covid-19 nightmares threaten to take over.

Tomorrow after work I pick up on the October projects. First and foremost, get back to The Great Re-Recording Project of 2015 and record new versions of 10 old songs. It was going to be eight songs, but I tacked on one song from February’s RPM Challenge, and one song from the just finished 50/90. The goal is to make these new versions of old songs sound better than just home demos.

Once that is finished, spend the rest of the month writing and demoing as close to 10 new songs as possible. I doubt I’ll have time for 10, but I want to get as many as I can. I’ve reached this goal in each of the last eight months. I want to keep the streak going.

Rock on, brothers and sisters.

Done

Allow me to officially declare the 2020 50/90 challenge complete. I finish with 51 songs written and recorded in 88 (I think?) days. Note that the challenge doesn’t include recording songs, it just asks you to write them. Whatever.

I know the playlist I’m including here isn’t going to work but what the hell. You can get the official, legal (hehe) copy here.

I was also trying to make sure I kept my personal little album in a month during quarantine challenge alive for the three months 50/90 covered and I did. 11 songs were written and recorded entirely in July, 12 entirely in August, and 14 entirely in September. The remaining 14 were started in one month and finished in another,

So what next? I’ve actually already started working on the first song for Quarantine Tunes Vol. 2. I’ll try to write more in October too, but I’m not really pushing for 10 new songs the way I did every month since February. I don’t want to stop playing and recording, but I think my song writing brain might need some time off. National Solo Album Month is coming in November, of course.

When I left off last night I had three songs left to work on. They all needed lead guitar parts. Today I decided to nerd it up like a mad man. I used all three of my Gibson guitars, one on each of the three songs. The Les Paul and the ES-335 both have fresh strings but the SG hasn’t been changed since… January? I haven’t played it since at least May… I think. Maybe it was June, but I’m pretty sure it was May. The strings were dead, but I pulled it off.

Here’s to my second ever complete 50/90 challenge. I need a nap.

What Was That?

I think that’s the first time it’s ever happened. At least since 2012. WordPress.com was just down! I couldn’t post and I couldn’t access my page. It was terrible! I started sweating and shaking and seeing little blue men with no feet who were pointing and laughing at me and Tracey Morgan yelled out, “Blue Man, where your feet at!” It was awful!

Anyway, I wanted to make a 50/90 update. I only have three songs left. I did so much work today I actually lost track of it all. Tomorrow I will add lead guitars to the final three songs and then I’ll mix ’em down and then I’ll be done and need to figure out what I want to do in October.

This song is the clear winner for the whole project, even if the guitar is a smidge out of tune:

43 Down

43 songs finished. Seven to go. Only three days left. Can he do it? Well, the seven songs I still need to finish are all close to done already so… yeah, there’s a good chance.

LaLaLaSinging

I told my wife as I was walking out the door for car music that I’d be back after five songs or a full bladder, whichever came first. Funny enough, they both hit at exactly the same time. As I was finishing the fifth song I reached the point where the bladder was at emergency status and raced home. Pretty crazy, huh?

The current status of the 50 songs in 90 days challenge is, I’m done with vocals! I have nine songs that need lead guitar and a mix and that’s it!

Still a good chunk of work to go, but the singing hurdle has been jumped! And there was much rejoicing!

Quick 50/90 Update

Yesterday I put lead guitars onto two songs, but I didn’t have a chance to mix them. I also wrote lyrics for the last song that needed lyrics. That brought me up to 50 repetitive, pointless, songs worth of meaningless lyrics. Yay!

I also did something wasteful. I added another song. I have the rhythm section and the lyrics done so it’s ready for some car vocals. Where do we stand now? 40 songs complete, 11 more to go. Two of them are done and just need to be mixed down. Four more need lead guitars, and five more need vocals and lead guitars. I was planning to do some car music today but I failed to get out of bed. I’ve been falling asleep later and later and it’s harder to get up early enough to get anything done before work. I’ll try again tomorrow.

Today is September 24. There are six days left this month. I can do this. It’s not going to sound good, but I can do this.

Even More Car Music

Car music was a success today. Well, 80% success at least. I had five songs ready to go and I did four of them. The last time I did this I was really struggling to find pitches and get the melodies right. Today was the opposite. Lots of first takes. So many that I added harmony parts everywhere. Way more that I was planning. I probably could have gotten through the fifth song too. It wasn’t the clock that was the problem today, it was my bladder. When you gotta go…

Sundays at the movie theater parking lot are nice. Very few people out for jogs. Lots of cars driving up and down the road though. No one stopped. Sort of. There was one car that was driving around and wouldn’t leave. I’m 99.9% sure it was a parent teaching a kid to drive. They didn’t come very close.

Looking through the Trello board for the 50/90 project, there are now only four songs left without vocals. Three of them still need lyrics. I don’t want to say that I’m almost done, but finishing the 50th vocal would feel pretty good.